The present invention relates generally to the fields of medicinal chemistry and molecular pathology and, more specifically, to novel triamine derivatives and their use as melanocortin receptor ligands and as agents for controlling obesity, sexual dysfunction or inflammation.
The melanocortin (MC) receptors are a group of cell surface proteins that mediate a variety of physiological effects, including regulation of adrenal gland function such as production of the glucocorticoids cortisol and aldosterone; control of melanocyte growth and pigment production; thermoregulation; immunomodulation; analgesia; obesity; feeding disorders; and sexual dysfunction. Five distinct MC receptors have been cloned and are expressed in a variety of tissues, including melanocytes, adrenal cortex, brain, gut, placenta, skeletal muscle, lung, spleen, thymus, bone marrow, pituitary, gonads and adipose tissue (Tatro, Neuroimmunomodulation 3:259-284 (1996)). Three MC receptors, MCR-1, MCR-3 and MCR-4, are expressed in brain tissue (Xia et al., Neuroreport 6:2193-2196 (1995)).
A variety of ligands termed melanocortins function as agonists that stimulate the activity of MC receptors. The melanocortins include melanocyte-stimulating hormones (MSH) such as xcex1-MSH, xcex2-MSH and xcex3-MSH, as well as adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH). Individual ligands can bind to multiple MC receptors with differing relative affinities. The variety of ligands and MC receptors with differential tissue-specific expression likely provides the molecular basis for the diverse physiological effects of melanocortins and MC receptors. For example, xcex1-MSH antagonizes the actions of immunological substances such as cytokines and acts to modulate fever, inflammation and immune responses (Catania and Lipton, Annals N. Y. Acad. Sci. 680:412-423 (1993)).
More recently, the role of specific MC receptors in some of the physiological effects described above for MC receptors has been elucidated. For example, in MCR-1 is involved in pain and inflammation. MCR-1 mRNA is expressed in neutrophils (Catania et al., Peptides 17:675-679 (1996)). The anti-inflammatory agent xcex1-MSH was found to inhibit migration of neutrophils. Thus, the presence of MCR-1 in neutrophils correlates with the anti-inflammatory activity of xcex1-MSH.
An interesting link of MC receptors to regulation of food intake and obesity has recently been described. The brain MC receptor MCR-4 has been shown to function in the regulation of body weight and food intake. Mice in which MCR-4 has been knocked out exhibit weight gain (Huszar et al., Cell 88:131-141 (1997)). In addition, injecting synthetic peptides that mimic melanocortins and bind to MCR-4 into the brain of normal and mutant obese mice caused suppressed feeding (Fan et al., Nature 385:165-168 (1997)). These results indicate that the brain MC receptor MCR-4 functions in regulating food intake and body weight.
Due to the varied physiological activities of MC receptors, high affinity ligands of MC receptors could be used to exploit the varied physiological responses of MC receptors by functioning as potential therapeutic agents or as lead compounds for the development of therapeutic agents. Furthermore, due to the effect of MC receptors on the activity of various cytokines, high affinity MC receptor ligands could also be used to regulate cytokine activity.
Thus, there exists a need for ligands that bind to MC receptors with high affinity for use in altering MC receptor activity. The present invention satisfies this need and provides related advantages as well.
The invention provides triamine derivative melanocortin receptor ligands of the formula: 
wherein R1 to R8 and n have the meanings provided below. The invention further provides methods of using the ligands to alter or regulate the activity of a melanocortin receptor.